Bristol Independent Send Community Questions Damian Hinds

Bristol Independent Send Community Questions Damian Hinds: Bristol Independent Send Community tackled Damian Hinds with difficult questions, when he made a visit to a South Gloucestershire School in Emersons Green yesterday.

He probably wasn’t expecting to be grilled by a group of representatives from local Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) groups from both Bristol and South Gloucestershire after he met with staff at Blackhorse Primary School.

Representatives from Send Crisis South Gloucestershire, Fair Funding South Gloucestershire, Bristol Independent Send Community and the National Education Union lobbied the Education Secretary for more funding.

Whilst he was keen to get across the message to campaigners that ‘there’s more funding than ever’ Send Crisis South Gloucestershire, pointed out that notional funding into school budgets is not ring-fenced and is being used for staff retention and building maintenance.

“We need more funding Damian, what are you going to do? The system is broken,” Bristol Independent Send Community said.

The Education Secretary told campaigners that he was ‘listening’ and ‘wanted to help’, but did not offer further assurances or promises.